Emma Ridley is responsible for the operational and general management of the Hebden Bridge site which carries out Allergen, Meat Speciation and GMO testing at SGS.

Dr Hazel Gowland is a leading food allergy advocate, expert patient, researcher, trainer and a university lecturer. As a food hypersensitive consumer, Dr Gowland informs and shapes allergen risk assessment and develops innovative and effective training programmes.

Dr Gowland’s research includes consumer and business behaviour, the quality of life and cost of living with food hypersensitivity, understanding and recording severe and fatal reactions and the regulatory context of food allergy.

Chrissie Jones is a Professor in Clinical Health Psychology at the University of Surrey, Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS). Prior to joining the University of Surrey, Chrissie spent 12 years at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School starting out in the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, before moving to the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine.

Chrissie’s main research focuses on the design and evaluation of psychological and behavioural interventions for individuals and their families with long term conditions, with specific expertise in asthma and allergy and mental health comorbidities.

Dr Helen Evans-Howells qualified with honours from Southampton University in 2005 and completed her GP training in 2015. Her interest in allergy was sparked by managing her own child’s milk and nut allergies, leading her to earn a Master’s in Allergy with distinction in 2018. She spent over four years with the allergy team at Southampton Hospital and now runs her own private clinic, offering both virtual and in-person allergy consultations, including food immunotherapy services in Ringwood and Belfast.

Passionate about supporting people with food allergies, Helen has founded an online support group, created the EATS Club to help families introduce allergens safely, and collaborates closely with charities. She’s a Trustee and Chair of the Clinical and Scientific Panel at Anaphylaxis UK and previously chaired the British Society of Allergy’s primary care group. Helen frequently appears in media, including Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Extra, BBC Radio, podcasts, and national newspapers, raising awareness about allergies and anaphylaxis.

Dr Warren Matofsky has worked with children, young people & their communities since he was a teenager.  After many years working as a youth & community worker in the UK, Middle East and the Caribbean, he trained in clinical psychology, specialising in child,  family and group therapies.  Warren has spent the last twenty years working in NHS child mental health services across Sussex, as a psychologist, supervisor and clinical lead.  Inspired throughout that work, has been the courage and creativity shown by children, families and their supporters, in working through deeply challenging experiences and beginning to trust a world that has often badly let them down.

Warren is passionate about the participation and involvement of  children and their families in all aspects of service delivery and staff training, in ensuring inclusive support and has specialised in working with anxiety, trauma and OCD and is able to share stories of hope about the way young people, with support and suitable environments,  have reclaimed their lives from these problems. Alongside Warren’s role as clinical psychologist and Head of Therapies at Vincent House School, Horsham, he is a senior teaching fellow at the University of Surrey, training the next generation of clinical psychologists, supervising research and leading the teaching on community psychology & clinical supervision.  Part of that role involves researching psychologically informed environments (PIE), which will be deeply valuable for working with Anaphylaxis UK, promoting safety, connection and wellbeing throughout the whole organisation and wider allergy community.

Robbie Epsom knows first-hand what it’s like to live with a life-threatening tree nut allergy, a challenge he now shares with his young son. Over the years, he’s faced multiple severe reactions, including some during international travel and a recent near-fatal incident on a business trip.

These experiences have fuelled his passion for raising awareness and improving safety for people with anaphylaxis. Working with Anaphylaxis UK and supported by CBRE Investment Management, Robbie is helping develop a workplace policy for managing life-threatening allergies. He’s committed to using both his professional platform and personal journey to drive real change for others living with serious allergies.

Zak Marks is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kitt Medical, a pioneering startup transforming how emergency allergy response is delivered in schools & qualifying businesses. Diagnosed at age five with severe nut and legume allergies, he came up with the idea for “like a defibrillator for allergies”, during his final year at university.

Together with his co-founder James, they officially launched Kitt Medical in 2023, offering wall-mounted ‘Anaphylaxis Kitts’ alongside a subscription supply of adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs), expiration-monitoring software, and CPD-accredited training in partnership with Anaphylaxis UK. Today, Kitt Medical operates across 1,000+ UK locations, has trained 25,000+ members of staff, and has directly aided individuals during multiple life-threatening allergic reactions, saving 18+ lives

Helen Allan has nearly 30 years’ experience working in the food industry from initially working in manufacturing and for the last nearly 10 years being responsible for food safety for Domino’s, one of the largest pizza brands in the world.

Allergens pose one of the biggest food safety risks for Domino’s and dominates a lot of the work Helen and her team do to ensure safety of customers.

With over two decades of extensive experience in the food industry, Jatin Patel serves as the Head of Operations at FGS Ingredients Ltd.

He has been a cornerstone of the business for the past 11 years. A qualified ACCA Accountant, Jatin combines his strong financial acumen with an in-depth understanding of food industry operations. He holds a Level 3 Food Safety Certification and has completed Advanced HACCP training.

Iain Ferris holds a Masters in Food Law and is an Assistant Professor in Food Safety, Standards & Law at Birmingham University with a particular interest in the area of legal compliance. This stems from his previous experiences working in the catering industry and in local authority enforcement.

Over the years he has garnered an excellent knowledge of food law in the areas of hygiene and standards through both academic study and practical application. Iain’s teaching at the University includes the subjects of HACCP, allergen management, food standards and understanding food legislation and is targeted at those that want to gain a deeper understanding of food safety and enforcement.

Melissa Thompson founded Safer Food Scores in 2010, a consultancy that provides practical solutions to food manufacturers, retailers, warehouse and distribution, contract caterers, hotels, and restaurants.

Caroline Benjamin is the founder of Food Allergy Aware, a multi award-winning business established in 2013. With a strong hospitality background and personal experience of food intolerance, Caroline has become a leading voice in supporting Food Business Operators (FBOs) across all sectors to understand and effectively cater for the Food Hypersensitive (FHS) customer.

Food Allergy Aware provides a practical toolbox of solutions, including accredited training, tailored consultancy, 360° allergen audits, menu and website gap analysis, and mystery dining services. The business also supports healthcare settings and has recently developed a suite of resources for hospitals, including a ward communication booklet to streamline the safe provision of meals to patients with allergies or intolerances.

Caroline is currently collaborating with Jacquie McPeake as hospitality support UK (hasuk.co.uk) to champion the importance of Near Miss Reporting in allergen management. Together, they are campaigning for businesses to formally adopt this approach as part of both food safety and allergen risk management processes. You can read the report by clicking here.  As a result they developed www.foodallergyreaction.report, a reporting platform designed to capture real-life issues experienced by individuals dining out with food allergies or intolerances. By collecting and sharing anonymised scenarios, the database aims to raise awareness, inform best practices, and ultimately help prevent serious allergic reactions from occurring in the future.

Serve Legal is the market leading provider of compliance auditing services in the UK and ROI and is a trusted provider of revenue protection audit programmes to some of the UK’s largest supermarkets.

Serve Legal has a nationwide community of 18+ auditors who are highly engaged and closely managed to deliver accurate audit results. We are able to fully audit entire retail estates across the UK and Ireland within weeks, as well as providing powerful analysis of audit data to support our clients in identifying and solving operational issues related to loss of revenue.

Peter Littleton is the Technical Director at Christeyns Food Hygiene Ltd, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of specialist detergents and disinfectants for the food, beverage, and dairy industries.

Known for his passion and commitment, Peter actively collaborates with industry bodies, enforcement agencies, and special interest groups to improve consumer safety and enhance food hygiene standards across manufacturing and processing operations. In recognition of his expertise, he received the Society of Food Hygiene Technology’s Trainer of the Year Award in 2011.

Peter works closely with organisations including Anaphylaxis UK, research institutions, universities, and major retailers. He chairs the Processing, Operations, and Preservation Member Interest Group at Campden BRI and proudly serves as Vice-Chairman of the Society of Food Hygiene Technology.

Dr Frédéric Girard, MD, MBA, has been working for healthcare industry over the last 32 years, including the last 22 years as general manager or senior executive. Dr Frédéric Girard has extensive experiences in multiple market segments (innovative medicines, generic medicines, biosimilars, medical devices), in various company cultures (big and mid-size pharma, SME, biotech) and in different European markets.

Dr Frédéric Girard is Senior Vice President, Development Operations Europe for DBV Technologies, a biotechnology company committed to helping children with food allergies live safely. DBV Technologies is developing Viaskin™, a non-invasive patch technology based on epicutaneous immunotherapy, that re-educates the immune system through the skin. The goal of DBV Technologies is to offer families a safe, effective, and accessible treatment option to help protect them from accidental exposure reactions.

Dr Frédéric Girard is Vice President of France Biotech, the French professional association for healthtech companies, and leads the leads the healthcare group for the Foreign Trade Advisors of France.

Professor Krishna (TK) is Chair of Allergy, Clinical Immunology and Global Health, Honorary Consultant Allergist and Immunologist and Head of Postgraduate School of Pathology for WM NHSE Education.

He has a special clinical and research interest in allergic diseases. His research has involved multi-disciplinary approach employing mixed methods including qualitative, quantitative, laboratory and epidemiological tools to answer some key questions in wide ranging and important clinical topics in allergic diseases. In recent years, he has taken a keen interest in studying allergic diseases in Low-Middle Income Countries and amongst British ethnic minority groups.

TK was awarded the prestigious Jack Pepys lectureship in 2021 by the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology in recognition for his contribution to the science of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at an international level.

Bio-Check help customers with their analytical requirements, either through providing test kits designed for an application or designing and manufacturing a test kit to suit an application.

Their food test kit range are manufactured in-house or by carefully selected, world-class partners. They are designed to deliver a reliable and effective testing regime, and have been developed to meet and exceed legislative requirements. Bio-Check help customers assess where it’s best to use testing to validate and verify their systems and do this by providing a combination of test kits, analytical services, training, consultancy and advice.

This event is designed for professionals who are keen to enhance their understanding of food allergen management guidelines and allergen control strategies. It’s ideal for those in retail, out-of-home eating, food manufacturing, and supply chain management.

The main focus is on deepening allergy awareness and allergen management in the food industry. The symposium aims to provide actionable insights into creating safer, allergy-friendly products and services.

• The prevalence and psychological impact of allergies.
• Living with a serious allergy and its daily implications.
• Challenges faced by the food industry in allergen management.
• Importance of risk assessment, validation, and verification in allergen safety.
• Human visual cognition and its role in reading safety labels.
• Enforcement measures for allergen safety regulations.

Wednesday 12th November 2025 at The Edgbaston Park Hotel & Conference Centre, Birmingham B15 2RS

Tickets will be on sale soon and priced at £150 (inc Vat), which includes lunch.

Sponsorship opportunities are available for businesses that wish to align their brand with best practices in allergen management. For more details, contact Lesley Ingram: finance@anaphylaxis.org.uk

The event will provide ample opportunities for business networking with over 140 delegates from various sectors, including allergen cleaning in food manufacturing and allergen preventive control.